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Marvel fans may not necessarily know Ryan Meinerding by name, but his fingerprints are all over the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Meinerding is the Head of Visual Development at Marvel, and his involvement with the company dates back to the first Iron Man movie. From there, Meinerding designed the Daredevil costume for the Netflix TV series and contributed to many of Marvel's signature films, including all of the Captain America, Thor, and Avengers films.

Outside of Marvel, Meinerding also designed costumes for the Watchmen feature film. But for his appearance in SYFY WIRE's Artists Alley series, Meinerding choose to revisit the Mark 1 Iron Man armor. To paraphrase Jeff Bridges' Obadiah Stane, "Tony Stark built this in a cave!" And according to Meinerding, designing the Mark 1 armor was a highlight of his career. He also shared some of his memories from that early gig.

"[Iron Man] was such a fun character, and working with Jon Favreau, and getting to know all of the guys at Marvel... Back then, the studio was brand new and everyone was so excited to be part of essentially a startup studio. The energy was just palpable."

Meinerding went on to state that the company was focused on getting the design right for Iron Man's Mark 2 and Mark 3 armor that he largely had a free hand when putting together his take on the Mark 1.

"I probably did two drawings before I did the final," recalled Meinerding. "I sort of hit something I think felt a little more detailed and slightly more real than what was sort of known [for this design] in the comics. They sort of approved it much more quickly than I was expecting them to, frankly."

For more Iron Man and Marvel intel from Meinerding, check out the full video!